


Not Valiant, but Vigilant

by WriterGreenReads



Series: USS Thanatos [3]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Dominion War (Star Trek), Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:54:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29685663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterGreenReads/pseuds/WriterGreenReads
Summary: Enlisted men react a bit differently to wartimes.
Relationships: Hagakure Tooru & Ojiro Mashirao, its not a ship yet but LATER
Series: USS Thanatos [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154921
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Not Valiant, but Vigilant

**Author's Note:**

> me, pointing at background characters: THAT ONES MY FAVORITE  
> cashier: sir, this is a wendys

Mashirao was a little stressed.

Actually, that was an understatement about the size of a Cardassian's ego.

Mashirao was  _ very very stressed. _

He bit down a swear as the paneling in front of him sparked, jerking back his hand just in time to avoid scorched fingers.

Sigh. There went another set of charge breakers.

Mashirao shook his head slightly in exasperation, swapping out his phase aligner for a decoupler before standing up once more, stretching out his back and glancing over at the plasma flow.

Well, they weren’t going to blow up in the next ten seconds. That was good.

“Bennett, can you-”

Mashirao froze, memory catching up to him.

The decoupler almost slipped from his fingers as he stared around the empty, empty, silence of Engineering. 

No one answered his absentminded call.

_…_ _ right. _

Honestly, it was a miracle that he’d gotten this far in the ship repairs already. Realigning phase coils was a delicate procedure, especially when starting practically from scratch, and there were usually at least three engineers on it during normal circumstances.

Which… this wasn't.

The Thanatos was barely holding herself together, and Mashirao was just  _ so tired. _

They’d lost Chief Tatani in the initial attack. One of the nicest men Mashirao had ever met, really. And Lieutenant Viltreck, and Ensign Bennet…

Everyone who’d been in Engineering when the deck depressurized.

Everyone except Mashirao.

He didn’t know whether to be grateful to the Prophets for guiding him away, mere minutes before the Jem’Hadar blew a hole through the Thanatos, or to curse them and just ask them  _ why. _

He was the only engineer on the ship, now, and he wasn’t even an  _ officer. _

“What are you doing?”

It took just about all of his self-control, but Mashirao managed to not squeak in shock at the voice suddenly on his immediate left, and instead turned his head to view the speaker just as her skin rippled into a solid appearance with a heat shimmer of color.

“Hello, Hagakure. I’m trying to realign our phase coils.”

The Suliban grinned at him, clearly unrepentant of the spook she’d given him. 

“I told you, you can call me Tooru.”

“You said I could call you that off duty,” Mashirao reminded her, turning back to his repairs. “Which we are not. I’m in the middle of my shift.”

Hagakure tilted her head.

“You’ve been on shift for fifteen hours already,” she said, wrinkling her nose and giving him a pointed look. 

Mashirao blinked, glance at the chronometer on the screen next to him. 0200 hours.

Prophets, had it really been that long?

“I… guess I lost track of time.”

Cross-pupiled eyes looked him over thoughtfully, a bit disconcerting with the amount of scrutiny behind them.

"I think maybe you did," Hagakure softly agreed after a moment. "You ok?"

Mashirao sighed.

“Yeah,” he lied. “I’m alright.”

“Right,” Hagakure said, the patience in her tone getting across just how much she didn’t believe him. “What’s the next part of the phase alignment?”

Mashirao blinked, caught off guard by the seemingly non-sequitur. 

“Umm.” He stared back at the screen blankly. Just what had he been doing?

“Maybe you should take a break,” Hagakure said gently, after almost a solid minute of him trying to remember the intricacies of the inner workings of a phase coil.

Mashirao rubbed his eyes with the palms of hands, trying to shove back the dizzy exhaustion that was creeping up his spine now that the time had finally caught up with him.

“Hagakure, I really don’t have the time-”

“Would Commander Aizawa let you keep working?” she interrupted. “You know his rules on working while tired.”

Mashirao winced. Yeah, he did. If the Commander had caught him like this, instead of just another enlisted man like Hagakure, he would have been  _ in for it. _

Their tactical officer was a  _ little _ intense.

You know, just how Mashirao was a little tired.

_ Damn it. _

“You’re right,” he admitted. “Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me,” Hagakure said simply. “Why is this bothering you?”

“It’s not-”

She gave him a look. His jaw clicked shut.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” she continued, more gently. “But honestly, you look like you need it.”

Mashirao set down his decoupler, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I feel like I’m not doing enough,” he admitted. “We’re lucky the bulkheads haven’t come apart underneath us, at this point.”

“You’re doing the best you can under difficult circumstances,” Hagakure pointed out, leaning against a monitor. “And I’m sure Aizawa would assign extra duty shifts to Engineering if you asked-”

"It's not just that," he interrupted. "It's…" He swallowed, grimacing at both the unwanted emotions and the faint buzzing in his ears. "It's a bit silly, honestly."

But there was no judgement in Hagakure’s gaze.

Just warm consideration.

Mashirao sighed, letting himself slide down the bulkhead to finally rest on the floor, everything suddenly catching up with him.

“Doesn’t this just seem… kind of pointless to you?”

Hagakure settled next to him in a graceful and far too limber crouch, resting on her heels and listening patiently as he tried to figure out where he’d been going with this.

“In what way?” she asked.

Mashirao shrugged.

“I mean, I made Petty Officer, first class. But not because of anything I actually  _ did.” _ He swallowed, throat tight. “It’s just because of what I  _ didn’t _ do.”

The  _ what _ they both knew he was referring to was left unsaid.

Hagakure clicked her tongue and folded her legs underneath her to sit beside him, uniformed knee brushing against his own.

“It does feel weird to be promoted out of the blue like this,” she agreed, gently running her fingers over the gold bars on her collar that marked her as a new Petty Officer as well. “It feels… almost disrespectful.”

“Like we don’t deserve it.”

“Mmm.” She tilted her head, fingertips shimmering with camouflage as she met his gaze once more. “This sucks.”

Mashirao couldn’t stop the startled laugh that escaped him at her blunt words.

“It does, doesn’t it.”

“But that’s not all that’s bugging you.”

Engineering was silent for a few moments as Mashirao carefully thought over his next words.

“It’s just…” He hesitated, tugging down his rolled up undersleeves. “You know, I stopped at Deep Space Nine when I transferred over from the Madrid for this assignment. And it was nice to be close to home again.”

“That’s the station around Bajor and the wormhole, right?”

“Yeah. It was at one of the bars on the Promenade- Quark’s I think? Run by a Ferengi. But there were some officers there.” At Hagakure’s silent, questioning head tilt, he elaborated. “Ensigns. All human, I think. Fresh out of the Academy, from the look of it.” He fiddled with his earring uncomfortably, recalling that exchange. “And they were just so  _ excited _ to get out here.”

“To get an active assignment?” Hagakure asked quietly.

Mashirao shrugged.

“They wanted to sail around and be heroes,” he said bluntly. “Fight some Jem’Hadar, charge to some poor civilian’s rescue. Be in the spotlight.” He huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose to try and stave off his headache a bit more. “You know. Shiny new officer things.”

“And that bothers you.”

“It bothers me because I know that too many of them are going to  _ die _ in this war,” Mashirao snapped. He wilted immediately, raising a conciliatory hand. “I- sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Hagakure actually took his raised hand, to his surprise, squeezing it gently in silent reassurance. “I get it. We’re the same age and everything, but…”

“But they feel like kids,” Mashirao finished. “Kids that don’t know what they’re getting into.”

Hagakure dipped her chin in agreement.

“And because they’re officers, we can’t do anything about it.”

“The curse of the enlisted men,” Mashirao sighed. 

Hagakure was warm against his shoulder in the silence.

"There's no glory in fighting. In  _ death,”  _ Mashirao finally continued. “Maybe that’s… maybe that’s just me. But I just don’t  _ understand.” _

“Maybe you never will,” Hagakure said quietly. “And maybe that’s a good thing.”

“How?”

“You keep them honest.” She peered up at him, eyelids flickering. “You keep them vigilant. And that will keep them alive.”

Mashirao swallowed.

“I just wish I could do more,” he whispered. 

Hagakure considered him for a moment before standing up and extending a hand to help him up. He took it, blinking at the ease in which she pulled him to his feet. She scooped up his abandoned toolset and clicked the lid shut, before turning back to Mashirao once more.

“Come on.” Hagakure bumped shoulders with him, smiling softly. “I think you need some food and some sleep. Satou made something called pancakes over in the mess hall. Let’s head on over.”

Mashirao leaned into the contact, feeling something in his heart settle for the first time since the Jem’Hadar had attacked.

“Thanks, Hagakure.”

“Tooru.”

“...thank you, Tooru.”


End file.
